


Whumptober 2019 - 22 - Hallucination

by OllieCollie



Series: Whumptober 2019 [22]
Category: Magnum P.I. (TV 2018)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hallucinations, Kidnapped, Memory Loss, Thomas is lucky to have such great friends, Trauma, Whump, Zeus and Apollo aka the lads
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-22
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-12-28 20:55:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21143060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OllieCollie/pseuds/OllieCollie
Summary: "Thomas!"No, no. It wasn't them. It wasn't them. He squeezed his eyes shut. The man had told him no one was coming for him. He'd said the drug would bring hallucinations along with it. That he wouldn't be able to trust anything he saw.





	Whumptober 2019 - 22 - Hallucination

**Author's Note:**

> So, I had a lot of fun writing this prompt (does that make me a terrible person?). It's mostly angst with a little fluff tossed in at the end.
> 
> Let me know what you think!

"Thomas!"

No, no. It wasn't them. It wasn't them. He squeezed his eyes shut. The man had _ told _ him no one was coming for him. He'd said the drug would bring hallucinations along with it. That he wouldn't be able to trust _ anything _he saw. 

It was odd, the fragmented memories that had been flipping through his mind. Some of them he easily recognized, but others weren't familiar at all.

And then, just like the man had warned, he started seeing things. He had been silly, really, to believe they were real when they first appeared.

The harsh reality that Nuzo wasn't there struck him suddenly...but no, that wasn't true. Nuzo was with them—they'd just been on a plane back to the States. Something nagged at Thomas, an important detail, but he couldn't quite latch onto it. The empty throb he felt in his heart when he reached for the fleeting memory made him decide he didn't want it, anyway. _ Ignorance is bliss. _

Then the camp came into focus around him. The clamor of the other prisoners, the dim lighting and dank smell. _ It's not real, _he told himself, but his surroundings begged to differ. Maybe them escaping and making it home had all been a dream. Because this...this certainly felt real. 

His head throbbed and he could feel the coarse ropes digging into his wrists. His breaths came in shallow gasps.

_ "Thomas." _ The voice was so familiar, one he would recognize even in a half-dead state—which probably wasn't far from where he was, considering how much the guards beat on them. _ "We're right here, brother." _

Nuzo. And Rick. And T.C. They were there.

"No, they're not!" he muttered aloud, his voice a hoarse whisper. Something...there was a reason he knew they weren't there. Drugs. Someone had given him drugs. They'd told him he'd start seeing things.

Thomas squeezed his eyes closed. Maybe if he blocked out the world around him, he wouldn't see anything that wasn't actually there. He wouldn't latch onto hope that didn't exist. 

Bits and pieces of a memory flashed in his mind. Being hit hard over the head. Hands on his arms, manhandling him down to a dark room. The sensation of a needle being stuck in his arm came once, twice. Then he was alone.

Everything hurt and he was exhausted, but he couldn't bring himself to go to sleep. A sense of pervading danger surrounded him, keeping him from drifting off. He wasn't sure how long he'd been down here—wherever here was. Confusion overtook him again, and he risked peeking an eye open. A similar scene from before greeted him, and he sighed. Because this time he was alone. Nuzo and the others were nowhere to be found. Solitary confinement at the camp had been tolerable at first, but it slowly broke him. He _ hated _it. The silence was too much. A whimper escaped despite his best effort to keep it back. 

But he had to stay strong. The guys had been discussing an escape plan. He knew they could do it, and he knew he had to be ready when the time came. Thomas sucked in a deep breath. He could do this.

An unfamiliar but recent—memory?—popped up in his head. An image of the beach and calming waves…a red Ferrari…a pretty blonde with an accent...

Wishful thinking, that's all it was, he decided. The mind did funny things when subjected to trauma. Thomas curled in on himself as tightly as could with the way his hands were bound behind him, as if he could make himself disappear. He just needed to last a little longer—

"Thomas!"

The voice was so close, so real. Thomas flinched. He could've sworn that was Rick…

"T.M., hey man!" T.C.? No way. Thomas was _ just _in solitary.

It wasn't real. The guards, they must've messed with his head. They just wanted information. Well, they weren't going to get it. 

"_ زه به تاسو ته څه ونه ووایم _," he muttered in Pashto, his head drifting slowly from side to side. "I won't...won't tell you—"

"Thomas, hey, it's us!" The concern in the voice was too real. Thomas forced one eye open, afraid of what—or who—he might see.

Not-T.C. hovered over him, brow furrowed in worry. "Hey, bro, you with us?"

The face of an angry guard replaced his friend's, and Thomas recoiled in fear. He knew it was too good to be true. 

He heard whispers around him. Something about drugs and head injuries and seeing things.

"_ ورور _ ," he heard Not-Rick murmur, first in Pashto and then in Dari. _ Brother. _

Thomas hesitated. He _ wanted _to believe that his friends were here to rescue him...but he'd been tricked before. He couldn't bear to let it happen again.

"Thomas, it's all right." The sudden feminine voice was unexpected. Thomas blinked his eyes open again despite his instinctive warnings not to.

The blonde from his hallucinations appeared in his line of sight. Huh. She even had the accent and everything. Did he know her? 

"There you go," she soothed, her voice soft and comforting as her hand brushed against his bruised cheek. "You're safe, Magnum."

Everything in him wanted to believe her. She was so _ familiar _. Maybe he didn't recognize the woman, but her voice was calming and Thomas felt himself relax despite the painful reminder that none of this was real. It was all just...a hallucination. 

His gaze drifted to the man beside the blonde. Not-Rick smiled softly down at him, his big hand coming to rest on Thomas's forehead. "It's all right, bud," he added. "Ambulance is on the way."

Ambulance? Then they weren't overseas...not in the camp? 

"Not...not real," he muttered between breaths.

"No, Thomas, listen to me. We _ are _here." It was the woman, the one with the accent. "This is real. MacGowan, he took you and drugged you."

The name rang absolutely no bells in Thomas's head, but she sounded convincing enough. 

His head hurt. There was too much to process, too many unknowns. His gut told him to trust these people, even if he _ was _ hallucinating that they were there.

"We're real, Thomas. We're right here," Not-T.C. joined in, his hand resting on Magnum's shoulder in order to provide some physical contact. It _ felt _real.

Thomas sighed. It bothered him that he wasn't sure what was actually happening. It was _ confusing _. But he supposed he had no other choice. Maybe it was a mistake, but he decided to trust them.

He closed his eyes and let the darkness overwhelm him.

* * *

"The human mind is a fickle thing," was all the doctor had given as an explanation. "Your memory could return in a few weeks, or there is a chance it might not ever fully come back." He'd gone on to add that with retrograde amnesia, the memories might return slowly over time. He was as clueless as Thomas felt. "Amnesia is a funny thing," was his last-ditch attempt. "Especially when we consider all the factors that lead to your loss of memory."

Thomas sighed. It had been a month now, and while he was vaguely recognizing certain sights and recalling conversations and events, it was all still a bit fuzzy. He remembered everything up until he and the guys had apparently come to Hawaii to restart their lives after the camp. Things were so different now. T.C. and Rick were still, well, T.C. and Rick—although they weren't _ quite _ the same as he remembered them. And Nuzo…

Thomas shoved away the thought. They'd tried to avoid telling him, but he'd pestered them until they gave in. He almost wished they hadn't.

And the blonde woman...Juliet Higgins, majordomo of Robin Masters' estate. She was interesting, to say the least. And annoying. She was always pestering him about one thing or another, and sometimes he could swear he'd had the same bantering conversations with her before. But it was still just out of reach.

He went to therapy, like his doctor recommended. Not just for the whole regain-your-memories side of things, but to deal with another hidden enemy. To Thomas, he'd just gotten home from a hostile environment overseas. The torture and pain of the camp was still fresh in his memory—and Rick and T.C. assured him he needed to talk about it.

It was coming back...slowly, like the doc had said. It was frustrating, but with the people he called family standing next to him, he was sure he could make it through. They believed in him—Rick and T.C. Even Higgins and Kumu and the HPD detective who always seemed to be slightly put off by his presence.

Thomas sat on the beach, watching the waves crash against the sand as the sun set in the distance. It was calming.

He heard someone—or rather, multiple someones—approach from behind. Two Dobermans appeared on either side of him. Thomas frowned. Zeus and Apollo... they'd mostly avoided each other since his return. According to Rick, they were the sweetest dogs ever. However, Thomas couldn't find it in himself to agree, and he'd heard the stories of how much the dogs didn't like him.

He and Zeus made eye contact—completely unintentionally—and Thomas didn't like what he saw. There was a playful gleam in the dog's eye, one that said _ "Hunting time!" _

With a yelp, Thomas leaped to his feet and took off. "_ Higgins! _" he hollered, running as fast as his legs would allow him. The lads were right on his heels.

Jules met him in the yard, concern written across her features. "Magnum? What's wrong?" 

He nearly tripped as he approached, throwing a glance over his shoulders. "Those monster dogs of yours just tried to eat me—again!" He gasped for breath. "Do you seriously want me to put shock collars on them like I did—" He stopped short, blinking as he processed what he'd just said.

Higgins' eyes widened. "Thomas…"

It was almost as if a dam broke open in his mind. All the vague memories—along with some completely forgotten ones—came pouring in, lining up to fill the remaining gaps. He stumbled backward with a surprised shout, hands coming up to grab at his head. 

"Thomas—" Jules' worried voice met his ears. 

"Higgy!" A wide grin split open across Magnum's face and he lifted his gaze to meet hers. "I remember!" 

Without a second thought, he pulled her into his arms and spun her around in a circle. "It's—they're back!"

Her joyful laugh filled the yard as she hugged him back. "Thomas, you're serious?" 

He set her down gently. "I—I think so." It was so...weird. "Some...some things are still a little fuzzy, " he admitted. "But I know—I'm back." His smile suddenly dropped. 

Juliet frowned along with him. "What is it?"

"Is...is Katsumoto still mad about the nuts?"

Her laugh was music to his ears. She didn't answer, only pulled him into another hug. 

Thomas closed his eyes and sank into the embrace. He was back. Thomas Sullivan Magnum, P.I. was back in business.


End file.
